Romania consecrates giant Orthodox cathedral

Source: Yahoo News

Tens of thousands of worshippers attended the consecration Sunday of a massive new Orthodox cathedral in Bucharest, amid criticism that public funding for the project could be better used to pay for hospitals and schools in one of the EU’s poorest members.

Construction of the Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest began in 2010 and is only scheduled to be completed in 2024.

But the consecration mass on Sunday — celebrated by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Romanian Patriarch Daniel — was attended by worshippers from all over the country, with huge crowds congregating in front of the building site, which was shrouded in fog, to follow the ceremony on giant screens outside.

“It’s a very special event. And I definitely wanted to be here because the cathedral symbolises the centenary of Romania,” founded on December 1, 2018, Ion Duta, a pensioner from Bucharest, told AFP.